Patrick Daugherty Discusses SEC, Crypto Legal Battles Under Incoming Administration

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Patrick Daugherty commented in the CoinDesk article, “Ex-SEC Lawyers Agree: Crypto Enforcement Shackles May Take Time to Resolve,” offering insight on potential shifts in regulatory enforcement of the crypto industry following President-elect Donald Trump’s win.

While a more friendly environment for the crypto industry is almost a certainty under the new administration, Daugherty said that the cases brought by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission in recent years all asserted “very strong claims of violation of law,” meaning the agency will probably need to go back and examine them individually as “each one has to be determined on its own merits.”

“In the most extreme case, they could simply dismiss,” said Daugherty, who heads Foley’s Digital Assets, Web3 & NFT team, although he noted that dropping cases abruptly is “a big ask and might not be justified.”

While the SEC and crypto firms could negotiate settlements in which firms do not admit wrongdoing but agree to stay within the agency’s guardrails, Daugherty added that, “Those things take a little bit of time to put together and do correctly.”

His comments also appeared in Yahoo! Finance.